WoollyTime

TheTime has arrived again. 6,5 kg of our own ethic produced angora wool is waiting to be sent to the mill. Yes, our angora rabbits have produced that much in a year.

Well, it was a bit cold moment in my snowy garden where I spread the wool on tarpaulin over the snow to sort it out and clean it from the trash when arctic wind was blowing from RussiaDirection all the way from Siberia. Bhrrr... But the wool was warm so my hands were not too frozen.

Last June we finally got our first AAW out of the mill. The angora wool was mixed with natural white FinnSheep RawWool. This time we mix it with natural black and grey (above) FinnSheep RawWool and ArcticDogWool.

It is going to be very interesting spring again to be patient and to wait how it all will turn out and how does it all look when the mill has done its job! Most of the FinnSheep RawWool we added was natural black (above; with blink of grey) but ArcticDogWool we use is pure white! Before we have made AAW and OOW but this is the 1st time to mix all these three elements together: DogWool, AngoraWool and FinnSheepWool.

LondonShopping

You know I am not a shopholic. FemaleGeneration is ashamed of me because of my poor shopping skills. But I managed to buy something else too than DropSpindle & MetallicFibers. These are not for me but for important persons who stayed at home.

I found very practical MagneticWindowMarkers...

...and BobbinBoxes.

I found small A4 size CuttingMat and GyroCut.

I could not resist orange fragrance soap.

From Twinings I found many interesting teas.

The Cat Tea Strainer was pleasing find for elder people who have just got fond of tea but has problem to use more traditional designed strainers. We spent many moments seeking strainer for weaker hands and at the end found this!

Colorful men's socks seemed to be the hottest fashion in London so I needed to buy few of them; for bigger and smaller boys.

VeryImportantBook was found too; of course at Platform 9 3/4. 

TheAmberOwl was found at PortobelloRoad (there I want to go back). Years ago I bought amber pearl-like ear rings for YoungLady from a Finnish jewelry shop. The hair pin She got from HerUncle who visited Poland few years ago. TheAmberOwl is also from Poland but ended up to London UK and now to Finland. They all match together so well. MyDearFriendL helped me to pick up the right owl. 💜

From UK

I've been far and away. I was in London, UK. I visited The Spring Stitching & Knitting Show. I planned the whole trip just to go to see the show which I have wanted to see for years. Of course there was far too much to see for a girl like me and I had only hand luggage with me so it limited a lot what I was able to buy. If I would have not needed to care about how to bring it all home I had bought tons of fabrics! BUT because I had to care about what fits in I had to leave all the pretty fabrics there.

Instead of fabrics I found SpinCity! We do have drop spindles here in Finland too but all I've seen are traditionally wooden. I have been planning to buy a drop spindle but because my mother-in-law has one I have not been in a hurry with that. When meeting Louise at the show and all her beautiful self made drop spindles I had to get one. It was very difficult to pick up the most prettiest one! Well, I ended up in flowers because of beautiful EnglishGardens that I love.

There was included a bit of yarn spun as a sample. One of my favorites -blue. That's why I decided to keep it.

I twisted it around my fingers like this...

...and tied the end around it to secure it all. This is something I learnt at the art college when studying textile & cloth designing. Very useful!

BUT Louisa had something else too for me! She had made some yarn and felted projects of wool which she had included a bit of sparkling. I had to buy a bag of each metallic fibers she had there for sale. Now I have Gold Angelina, Silver Angelina, Electric Blue Angelina, Peacock Angelina and Rainbow Firestar and to be honest: I can not wait summer season to be able to start felting outside to try these out! My garden has still almost 1 meter snow over it and it is far too cold to bring my felting stuff there! UNFAIR!

Pretty For Me!

This week I've been knitting Long & Romantic woollen socks for Me&MySelf. They are my own design. Last Spring I knit BubbleSocks and now I have these to wait for the next autumn. It is fabulous to wear brand new woollen socks when it gets cold after the summer and you didn't knit them at first! What a luxury!

I used very old Novita's 7 veljestä yarn. (75% wool, 25% polyamide) (100g = 200m) They still sell it but the quality has gone down -unfortunately. Many people are complaining about the poor quality nowadays. The problem seems to be the quality varies a lot. Years ago you could be sure the quality is standard and good. This old quality behind the years feels so much different in your hands and lasts much longer.

These yarn balls are from the collection I inherit from my grandmother. I really am very seriously considering to change the yarn I use. The difference is so remarkable what they have done to the yarn during these years. Novita seems to pay more attention on shades nowadays than the quality. Sad, so sad.

Last January I knit ForMe woollen socks for daily use. It was extremely infuriating to notice after only 3 wearing times that the socks had piled quite badly. (I am very happy I knit also BubbleSocks because I've been using them then.) After a long time I had bought ball of original Novita 7 veljestä yarn and this was the result with socks ForMe. For a long time I have used Novita's old quality yarn storage I have inherit from my grandmothers.

I had 2 yarn balls of this type: 1 white and 1 cream. I knit the legs to be as long as 100g allowed me to. I decorate the socks with SingleCables.

For the 1st time I knit this type on heel. It looks different and perhaps a bit more romantic but should be as lasting as the original styled one I always before have knit. The structure is similar at the end; it just varies a bit. I reaally hope, wish and believe this socks will be good quality. I saved the last balls of the yarns for Me&MySelf just in case.

UP!

 

 I finally reached the point where I needed to put some marks for the sleeves of my cardigan. It started to get very interesting.

Here we go now!

Very Well Very UP!

Excitement increases and very soon I need to try it on!